In this new, expanded edition, Nairn reviews the issues and arguments of his classic study, and maintains that the break-up of Britain has advanced with quite unforeseen speed. The shapes of the British crisis, in its latest stage are visible in Thatcher’s ‘phoney counter-revolution’, the convulsions of Labour and the rise of the Social Democrats. The shape of a possible resolution may be glimpsed in the development of the Alternative Economic Strategy and in an ‘alternative political strategy’ capable of responding the the now more radical nationalisms of Scotland and Wales. This expanded version of The Break-Up of Britain is frank in reconsidering the arguments of the first edition and vigorous in developing them into the present. It will confirm Nairn’s matchless standing on the left as an analyst of British politics.
